WAUCornishSchoolPHColl235.xml Preliminary Guide to the Cornish School Photograph Collection circa 1914-1960 Cornish School Photograph Collection Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries ©2008 (Last modified: 4/12/2018)
Seattle, WA 98195
Finding aid written in English. Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard). University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections PH0235 Cornish School of Music (Seattle, Wash.) Cornish School photograph collection circa 1914-1960 982 photographic prints (6 boxes) Collection materials are in English. Photographs from Seattle school of the arts, now Cornish School of the Arts

The Cornish School of Allied Arts was founded by Nellie C. Cornish in 1914 as the Cornish School of Music, located in the Booth Building at Broadway and Pine Street in Seattle. Nellie Cornish wanted to educate artists through exposure to all art forms, and within the next few years, expanded the curriculum to offer courses in dance, visual arts, theater, and design. The school became the first in the western United States to offer comprehensive training in all of the arts.

Nellie Cornish recruited both famous and unknown artists for her faculty, including painter Mark Tobey, dancer and choreographer Martha Graham, and artists fleeing from the Russian revolution, such as Peter Merenblum. Her focus, however, was not to bring art to a privileged elite, but to nurture creativity in the average person and enrich the lives of all, not just the talented, by means of art.

After World War I, and faced with the Cornish School's impending financial crisis, a group of prominent, welthy women and their husbands formed a Board of Trustees to raise funds for a new facility. In 1921, the School moved to a new, picturesque building on East Roy Street, with Nellie Cornish living in an upstairs apartment.

While the School's programs flourished, Cornish faced repeated financial crises. In 1924, with the school unable to pay the mortgage on its property, a group of benefactors formed the non-profit Cornish School Foundation to manage finances, and named Nellie Cornish the lifetime director of educational programs, working in coordination with the Foundation's Board of Trustees and the Women's Advisory Committee. After 1939, with the resignation of Nellie Cornish, a Faculty governing Board directed the school until 1946. The Music and Art Foundation, a women's civic organization formed in 1923 to encourage young people to develop their creative and artistic talents, assumed ownership and administrative responsibility of the Cornish School in 1954.

In 1977, Cornish School of Allied Arts became Cornish Institute of Allied Arts, a fully accredited college offering Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees. In 1986, the college was renamed the Cornish College of the Arts. Cornish College opened a new campus in downtown Seattle in 2003.

The collection is arranged to reflect the activities of the school in the areas of art, music, drama and dance from circa 1914 to circa 1960. Participants identifiable with a particular activity of the school were placed in a subject catagory. Those individuals who were unidentified were placed in the unidentified catagories.

View the index to identified individuals from this collection

The collection is open to the public.

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Cornish School of Allied Arts Records (Manuscripts Collection 2654)

Cornish College of Allied Arts (Seattle, Wash.) Cornish School of Music (Seattle, Wash.)--Archives Cornish College of Allied Arts (Seattle, Wash.)--Archives Cornish School of Music (Seattle, Wash.)--Students--Photographs Cornish College of Allied Arts (Seattle, Wash.)--Students--Photographs Acting--Study and teaching--Washington (State)--Seattle Art--Study and teaching--Washington (State)--Seattle Art schools--Washington (State)--Seattle--Archives Arts--Washington (State)--Seattle Conservatories of music--Washington (State)--Seattle--Archives Dance--Study and teaching--Washington (State)--Seattle Dance schools--Washington (State)--Seattle--Archives Music--Instruction and study--Washington (State)--Seattle Small colleges--Washington (State)--Seattle Universities and colleges--Washington (State)--Seattle Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington) Fine Arts Performing Arts Music Seattle Photographs

 

1 Series A: Portraits - Identified circa 1914-1960 1 Series B: Group Portraits - Identified circa 1914-1960 1 Series C: Portraits - Unidentified circa 1914-1960 2 Series D: Group Portraits - Unidentified circa 1914-1960 2 Series E: Stage Productions - Identified 1926 1929 undated

Cornish Follies of 1926; The Gondoliers; Manickie and Minikie; Passion Play; Pierrot; The Prodigal Princess Who Wouldn't Say Die (Summer 1929); Tidings Brought to Mary

 2 Series F: Stage Productions - Unidentified circa 1914-1960 2 Series G: Stage Productions - Miscellaneous circa 1914-1960 2 Series H: Art circa 1914-1960 2 Subseries 1. Portraits - Identified circa 1914-1960 2 Subseries 2. Design: a. Costume b. Interior circa 1914-1960 3 Subseries 3. Drawing and Painting circa 1914-1960 3 Subseries 4. Miscellaneous circa 1914-1960 3 Subseries 5. Art Work circa 1914-1960 3 Series I: Dance circa 1914-1960 3 Subseries 1: Portraits - Identified circa 1914-1960 3 Subseries 2: Productions - Identified 1932 undated

Concetante Queen of the Night (Dec. 1932); Spectrum; Theft of the Brooch

 3 Subseries 3: Productions - Unidentified circa 1914-1960 3 Subseries 4: Ballet circa 1914-1960 3 Subseries 5: Eurythmics circa 1914-1960 3 Subseries 6: Miscellaneous circa 1914-1960 4 Series J: Drama circa 1914-1960 4 Subseries 1: Portraits - Identified circa 1914-1960 4 Subseries 2: Portraits - Unidentified circa 1914-1960 4 Subseries 3: Group Portraits - Identified (from unknown productions) circa 1914-1960 4 Subseries 4: Productions circa 1914-1960 5 Subseries 5: Miscellaneous circa 1914-1960 5 Series K: Music circa 1914-1960 5 Subseries 1: Portraits - Identified circa 1914-1960 5 Subseries 2: Productions - Identified (A Letter to Emily) 1952 5 Subseries 3: Cornish Trio circa 1914-1960 5 Subseries 4: Horns circa 1914-1960 5 Subseries 5: Piano circa 1914-1960 5 Subseries 6: String circa 1914-1960 6 Subseries 7: Symphony circa 1914-1960 6 Subseries 8: Voice circa 1914-1960 6 Series L: Puppetry circa 1914-1960 6 Subseries 1: Portraits - Identified circa 1914-1960 6 Subseries 2: Activities circa 1914-1960 6 Series M: Radio circa 1914-1960 6 Series N: Children's Activities circa 1914-1960 6 Series O: Audiences circa 1914-1960 6 Series P: Buildings circa 1914-1960 6 Series Q: Documents circa 1914-1960 6 Series R: Photographers' Proofs circa 1914-1960 6 Series S: Miscellaneous circa 1914-1960